Layout Application Questionnaire and Supporting Certificates

What the document covers

The Town and Country Planning Department guidance is a questionnaire and document checklist for layout applications. The local body must record details about the applicant, ownership, survey numbers, site extent, proposed plots, access road and whether the proposal is new or alters an approved layout.

For land in a panchayat area, the material also includes an application under Rule 3(1) of the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Building Rules, 1970, and undertakings to be given by the applicant.

Site and planning checks

The layout questionnaire requires the local body to examine:

• Whether plots have already been sold or buildings already exist on the site.
• Whether the proposed use matches a detailed development plan or master plan.
• The type, origin, status and maintenance of the access road.
• Buildings, major land uses, water bodies, electricity or telecommunication lines, airfields, ancient monument areas, mines and quarries around the site.
• Whether the land is within the stated coastal distance bands of 200 metres or 500 metres.
• Whether another layout approved by the Town and Country Planning Department exists within 200 metres.
• Whether any complaint or court case concerns the layout or reservation changes.

A topographical plan must show relevant surrounding features within 90 metres of the site boundaries.

Documents and certificates

The layout application checklist calls for ownership records, an up-to-date full encumbrance certificate, an authenticated field measurement book survey sketch, layout plans and topographical plans. It also asks for local body certificates and planning officer recommendations or inspection notes.

The executive authority of the local body must certify that ownership and the applicant's right to seek approval were verified. The authority must also certify that the proposal does not include government poromboke land or land belonging to a public body or quasi-government agency, that access is through a maintained public road, and that the site is not unsuitable because of waterlogging, drainage, nearby quarries, burial grounds or obstruction of natural watercourses.

The authority must check whether proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act 1894, Land Reforms Act of 1961 or Urban Land Ceiling Act 1978 affect the land.

Applicant commitments

An applicant in a panchayat area agrees not to develop or sell plots before approval by the executive authority. The applicant must follow the approved plan, permit inspection, provide required information and common amenities, surrender land needed for streets and pathways, and bear the stated development expenses for those areas.